Risks for waiting for well-matched

ABSTRACT

A contact center which provides the ability to, among other things, support deferring work assignment decisions while simultaneously assessing the risks associated with such a deferred decision. The intelligent deferment of work assignment decisions helps to achieve better matching without losing the opportunity to timely assign work to an agent.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure is generally directed toward communications andmore specifically toward contact centers.

BACKGROUND

Sophisticated contact centers attempt to match a customer to themost-qualified agent. This has many benefits including increasedcustomer satisfaction as well as a higher potential for increasingcontact center revenue/decreasing contact center costs. The objective ofhaving a well-matched agent and customer is often contrary to otherobjectives in the contact center such as minimizing customer wait time,minimizing agent idle time, etc. Because of these contradictingobjectives, contact centers often forego deferring any match to wait fora well-matched situation.

There are times when deferring a work assignment decision is safe andtimes when it is not safe. Most contact centers do not consider therisks associated with waiting to defer decisions, but rather apply aone-size-fits-all routing algorithm. In particular, the risk of customerabandon is of special concern.

The problem with the approach described above is that there are manysituations where it would actually benefit all aspects of the contactcenter to wait for a better agent-to-customer match. The problem isdetermining when it is better to hold on and wait and when it is betterto fold and just take the next available customer/agent.

SUMMARY

It is with respect to the above issues and other problems that theembodiments presented herein were contemplated. In particular,embodiments of the present disclosure propose the ability to create apool of agents that are (1) qualified to handle a particularcontact/work item from a particular customer or a particular type ofcontact/work item but (2) are not considered “well-matched” agentsbecause their skill level for the contact/work item is not as high asother agents in the contact center.

The present disclosure allows the routing logic of the contact center(e.g., a work assignment engine) to delay a routing decision for acontact/work item while keeping an eye on the pool of qualified but notwell-matched agents. The routing decision for the contact/work item canbe delayed unless it is determined that the risk of waiting for awell-matched and available agent has passed a particular risk tolerance.The risk tolerance for waiting can be based on the rate at which thepool of qualified but not well-matched agents is decreasing, theabsolute number of agents in the pool of qualified but not well-matchedagents, and/or the rate of incoming contacts that will consume the poolof qualified but not well-matched agents. By analyzing the pool ofqualified but not well-matched agents, the routing logic can moreintelligently determine whether it is okay to try and wait for a betteragent or whether the risk of waiting is outweighed by the risk of losingaccess to the pool of qualified by not well-matched agents.

Embodiments of the present disclosure build upon the concepts describedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/457,253 entitled “WORK ASSIGNMENTDEFERMENT DURING PERIODS OF AGENT SURPLUS” to Flockhart et al., theentire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. Inparticular, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a mechanism bywhich work assignment deferment can be made with a simultaneousconsideration of the risks associated with such a deferment.

The routing logic may also consider Weighted Advance Time (WAT) as partof its risk analysis. Specifically, if WAT is big (e.g., larger than apredetermined threshold), then delaying the routing decision is morerisky because there is not many opportunities after an agentavailability. More specifically, WAT, wait time, and a target wait time(objective) can be used to determine the number of “opportunities” acustomer will have to be served before there is a failure to meet theobjective. A simple equation that could be used to calculate the numberof opportunities is (objective—wait time)/WAT. This number ofopportunities may be the value that is analyzed to determine whether therisk of waiting is tolerable or not (e.g., the risk threshold can bedefined by the number of remaining opportunities).

Even more sophisticated routing logic may be able to predict wait timefor a well-matched agent to become available for the contact. If thepredicted wait time for the well-matched agent is projected to be lessthan a predicted time at which the pool of qualified but notwell-matched agents goes away, the routing logic can decide to defer arouting decision. This deferment may continue until the well-matchedagent becomes available, until the risk of losing the pool of qualifiedby not well-matched agents is too great, or until a predetermined amountof time has passed since the contact entered the contact center.

A feedback loop may also be used to automatically adjust the risktolerance applied by the routing logic. Specifically, failure rates ofmissing well-matched opportunities can be measured and used toautomatically adjust when the routing logic should stop waiting for awell-matched agent and simply assign the contact to an agent from thepool of qualified but not well-matched agents.

Another aspect of the present disclosure, alone or in combination withthe other above-described embodiments, would be to allow a customer'sindividual wait tolerance to be considered. This can be determined byanalyzing historical information for that customer or by directly askingthe customer if they have tolerance for waiting beyond the objectivetime for a better match.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,a method is provided which generally comprises:

receiving a first contact in a contact center;

creating a first work item as a representation of the first contact inthe contact center;

establishing a pool of agents within the contact center, each agent inthe pool of agents being qualified to process the first work item butalso not being considered a well-matched agent for the first work itembecause they are not as qualified to process the first work item as atleast one other well-matched agent in the contact center, wherein the atleast one other well-matched agent is not available at the first time;and

deferring a work assignment decision for the first work item beyond thefirst time while simultaneously considering a risk of not assigning thefirst work item to an agent in the pool of agents.

The phrases “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” are open-endedexpressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. Forexample, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at leastone of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B,or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.

The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. Assuch, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can beused interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms“comprising”, “including”, and “having” can be used interchangeably.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers toany process or operation done without material human input when theprocess or operation is performed. However, a process or operation canbe automatic, even though performance of the process or operation usesmaterial or immaterial human input, if the input is received beforeperformance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to bematerial if such input influences how the process or operation will beperformed. Human input that consents to the performance of the processor operation is not deemed to be “material”.

The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to anytangible storage that participates in providing instructions to aprocessor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, includingbut not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmissionmedia. Non-volatile media includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic oroptical disks. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as mainmemory. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, afloppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any othermagnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other opticalmedium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patternsof holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid state mediumlike a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any othermedium from which a computer can read. When the computer-readable mediais configured as a database, it is to be understood that the databasemay be any type of database, such as relational, hierarchical,object-oriented, and/or the like. Accordingly, the disclosure isconsidered to include a tangible storage medium and prior art-recognizedequivalents and successor media, in which the software implementationsof the present disclosure are stored.

The terms “determine”, “calculate”, and “compute,” and variationsthereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any typeof methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

The term “module” as used herein refers to any known or later developedhardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, orcombination of hardware and software that is capable of performing thefunctionality associated with that element. Also, while the disclosureis described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciatedthat individual aspects of the disclosure can be separately claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appendedfigures:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting pools and bitmaps that are utilizedin accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram depicting a data structure in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting a method of intelligently deferringwork item routing decisions in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The ensuing description provides embodiments only, and is not intendedto limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims.Rather, the ensuing description will provide those skilled in the artwith an enabling description for implementing the embodiments. It beingunderstood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of a communication system 100 inaccordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure. Thecommunication system 100 may be a distributed system and, in someembodiments, comprises a communication network 104 connecting one ormore communication devices 108 to a work assignment mechanism 116, whichmay be owned and operated by an enterprise administering a contactcenter in which a plurality of resources 112 are distributed to handlework items (in the form of contacts) from the customer communicationdevices 108.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication network 104 may comprise any type of knowncommunication medium or collection of communication media and may useany type of protocols to transport messages between endpoints. Thecommunication network 104 may include wired and/or wirelesscommunication technologies. The Internet is an example of thecommunication network 104 that constitutes an Internet Protocol (IP)network consisting of many computers, computing networks, and othercommunication devices located all over the world, which are connectedthrough many telephone systems and other means. Other examples of thecommunication network 104 include, without limitation, a standard PlainOld Telephone System (POTS), an Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) network, a Voice over IP (VoIP) network, a cellular network, andany other type of packet-switched or circuit-switched network known inthe art. In addition, it can be appreciated that the communicationnetwork 104 need not be limited to any one network type, and instead maybe comprised of a number of different networks and/or network types. Asone example, embodiments of the present disclosure may be utilized toincrease the efficiency of a grid-based contact center. Examples of agrid-based contact center are more fully described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/469,523 to Steiner, the entire contents of whichare hereby incorporated herein by reference. Moreover, the communicationnetwork 104 may comprise a number of different communication media suchas coaxial cable, copper cable/wire, fiber-optic cable, antennas fortransmitting/receiving wireless messages, and combinations thereof.

The communication devices 108 may correspond to customer communicationdevices. In accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a customer may utilize their communication device 108 toinitiate a work item, which is generally a request for a processingresource 112. Exemplary work items include, but are not limited to, acontact directed toward and received at a contact center, a web pagerequest directed toward and received at a server farm (e.g., collectionof servers), a media request, an application request (e.g., a requestfor application resources location on a remote application server, suchas a SIP application server), and the like. The work item may be in theform of a message or collection of messages transmitted over thecommunication network 104. For example, the work item may be transmittedas a telephone call, a packet or collection of packets (e.g., IP packetstransmitted over an IP network), an email message, an Instant Message,an SMS message, a fax, and combinations thereof.

In some embodiments, the communication may not necessarily be directedat the work assignment mechanism 116, but rather may be on some otherserver in the communication network 104 where it is harvested by thework assignment mechanism 116, which generates a work item for theharvested communication. An example of such a harvested communicationincludes a social media communication that is harvested by the workassignment mechanism 116 from a social media network or server.Exemplary architectures for harvesting social media communications andgenerating work items based thereon are described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. Nos. 12/784,369, 12/706,942, and 12/707,277, filed Mar.20, 1010, Feb. 17, 2010, and Feb. 17, 2010, respectively, each of whichare hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

The format of the work item may depend upon the capabilities of thecommunication device 108 and the format of the communication. In someembodiments, work items are logical representations within a contactcenter (e.g., the work assignment mechanism 116 of the contact center)of work to be performed in connection with servicing acommunication/contact received at the contact center. The communicationor contact associated with a work item may be received and maintained atthe work assignment mechanism 116, a switch or server connected to thework assignment mechanism 116, or the like until a resource 112 isassigned to the work item representing that communication at which pointthe work assignment mechanism 116 passes the work item to a routingengine 132 to connect the communication device 108 which initiated thecommunication with the assigned resource 112. The connection between thecustomer communication device 108 and a resource 112 may be effected bythe routing engine 132 assigning one or more communication resources(e.g., sockets, buffers, physical ports, etc.) to establish acommunication path (e.g., media stream such as RTP or SRTP) between thecommunication device 108 and resource 112. In some embodiments, thecommunication path established between the communication device 108 andresource 112 may also carry call control signaling, however, it may alsobe possible to maintain the signaling path at the work assignmentmechanism 116. Alternatively, the customer communication device 108 maybe initially connected to a conference bridge or the like by the routingengine 132 before any resource 112 is assigned to the contact. The workassignment mechanism 116 may later decide which resource(s) 112 aregoing to be assigned to the contact and, upon making such a decision,instruct the routing engine 132 to connect the selected resource(s) 112to the conference bridge where the contact is being parked.

Although the routing engine 132 is depicted as being separate from thework assignment mechanism 116, the routing engine 132 may beincorporated into the work assignment mechanism 116 or its functionalitymay be executed by the work assignment engine 120.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication devices 108 may comprise any type of knowncommunication equipment or collection of communication equipment.Examples of a suitable communication device 108 include, but are notlimited to, a personal computer, laptop, tablet, Personal DigitalAssistant (PDA), cellular phone, smart phone, telephone, or combinationsthereof. In general each communication device 108 may be adapted tosupport video, audio, text, and/or data communications with othercommunication devices 108 as well as the processing resources 112. Thetype of medium used by the communication device 108 to communicate withother communication devices 108 or processing resources 112 may dependupon the communication applications available on the communicationdevice 108.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the work item is sent toward a collection of processing resources 112via the combined efforts of the work assignment mechanism 116 androuting engine 132. The resources 112 can either be completely automatedresources (e.g., Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units, processors,servers, or the like), human resources utilizing communication devices(e.g., human agents utilizing a computer, telephone, laptop, etc.), orany other resource known to be used in contact centers.

As discussed above, the work assignment mechanism 116 and resources 112may be owned and operated by a common entity in a contact center format.In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism 116 may beadministered by multiple enterprises, each of which has their owndedicated resources 112 connected to the work assignment mechanism 116.

In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism 116 comprises a workassignment engine 120 which enables the work assignment mechanism 116 tomake intelligent routing decisions for work items. In some embodiments,the work assignment engine 120 is configured to administer and make workassignment decisions in a queueless contact center, as is described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/882,950, the entire contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

More specifically, the work assignment engine 120 can generatebitmaps/tables 128 and determine, based on an analysis of thebitmaps/tables 128, which of the plurality of processing resources 112is eligible and/or qualified to receive a work item and furtherdetermine which of the plurality of processing resources 112 is bestsuited to handle the processing needs of the work item. As will bediscussed in further detail herein, the work assignment engine 120 maycomprise one or more rule sets for making intelligent work item routingdecisions, which in some embodiments may actually be a decision to defera work item routing decision.

In situations of work item surplus, the work assignment engine 120 canalso make the opposite determination (i.e., determine optimal assignmentof a work item to a resource 112). In some embodiments, the workassignment engine 120 is configured to achieve true one-to-one matchingby utilizing the bitmaps/tables 128 and any other similar type of datastructure.

The work assignment engine 120 may reside in the work assignmentmechanism 116 or in a number of different servers or processing devices.In some embodiments, cloud-based computing architectures can be employedwhereby one or more components of the work assignment mechanism 116 aremade available in a cloud or network such that they can be sharedresources among a plurality of different users.

In addition to comprising the work assignment engine 120, the workassignment mechanism 116 may also comprise a state monitor 124. Thestate monitor 124 may be configured to monitor and assess the state ofthe contact center 100 on a continual or periodic basis and provideresults of its assessment to the work assignment engine 120.Specifically, the state monitor 124 may provide its analysis informationto the work assignment engine 120 to assist the work assignment engine120 in making work item routing decisions. In some embodiments, theinput from the state monitor 124 may be used as inputs to the riskanalysis module 140 and/or deferment rules 136 contained within the workassignment engine 120. The variables or considerations used by the riskanalysis module 140 to determine if a work assignment should be deferredcan be provided directly by the state monitor 124.

In particular, the deferment rules 136 may be similar to the defermentrules described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/457,253 in thatthey may comprise thresholds, algorithms, criteria, or the like fordetermining whether and when a work item decision should be deferred.The risk analysis module 140 may provide a feedback mechanism to thedeferment rules 136 that considers a state of the contact center and,based on the determined state of the contact center, whether thedeferment rules 136 should be allowed to defer a work assignmentdecision or whether the default deferment rules 136 should beignored/overridden to avoid the risk of waiting for a better-suitedagent for the work item.

Specifically, the state monitor 124 may be responsible for monitoringone or more agent performance metrics (e.g., KPIs, schedule adherence,overall profitability, skill improvements, etc.) for some or all agentsin the contact center 100 and comparing those metrics with one or moreService Level Objectives or SLOs. The results of these comparisons maybe provided to work assignment engine 120 to assist in making work itemrouting decisions.

The state monitor 124 may also be configured to analyze properties of apool of agents that are currently available to handle a contact, but arenot considered the best agent within the contact center to process thecontact. As used herein, agents that are placed within such a pool ofagents may be considered available but not well-matched agents. The riskanalysis module 140 may be configured to determine whether the agentswithin the pool of available but not well-matched agents are beingassigned to other projects (e.g., leaving the pool by becoming notavailable) and, if so, whether the contact should be assigned to anagent from the pool before such an option becomes obsolete.

Information monitored by the state monitor 124 may include informationwhich describes an agent's current or historical (e.g., past hour, day,week, month, quarter, year, recent work assignment history, etc.)performance within the contact center and/or an agent's currentavailability. In some embodiments, the state monitor 124 may provide KPIinformation that is obtained from the work assignment engine 120 or fromsome other analysis and reporting module running within the contactcenter. As used herein, KPIs may include, without limitation, any metricor combination of metrics that define performance of an entity within acontact center (e.g., a contact center agent, a group of contact centeragents, etc.). Specifically, a KPI can be defined in terms of makingprogress toward strategic goals or simply the repeated achievement ofsome level of an operational goal.

The state monitor 124 may also be configured to analyze one or more KPIsof a work item or a collection of work items within the contact center.For instance, the state monitor 124 may be configured to analyze WAT fora group of work items, actual wait time for a work item, estimated waittime for a work item, etc.

In a contact center context, KPIs may vary depending upon whether workitems correspond to outbound contacts (e.g., contacts originated by thecontact center) or inbound contacts (e.g., contacts received at thecontact center that have been originated outside the contact center).Non-limiting examples of outbound contact KPIs include: Contacts perhour—Average number of customers a call center agent was able to contactwithin an hour; Leads Conversion Rate—The percentage of leads thatactually converted to sales; Hourly Sales—The average amount of salesthe call center representative was able to close in an hour; DailySales—The average value of sales the agent was able to close in a day;and Accuracy—Extent to which a contact has been handled according to apredetermined script.

Non-limiting examples of inbound contact KPIs include: Real timeQ—Metrics; Calls per hour—The average number of calls the agent is ableto take per hour; Saves/One-Call Resolutions—The number of times ouragents are able to resolve an issue immediately within the first phonecall. Colloquially referred to as “one-and-done” calls; Average HandleTime—How long it takes for one call to be handled, which includes thecall time itself, plus the work done after that call; Average WaitTime—How long a caller is put on hold before a call center agent becomesavailable to take the call; Accuracy; Abandonment Rate—This is thepercentage of customers who disconnected before an agent was able tointercept the call; and Completion Rate—The ratio of successfullyfinished calls to the number of attempted calls by the customer.

Other types of KPIs that are not necessarily specific to inbound oroutbound contacts include, without limitation, customer satisfactionlevel, customer service level, average speed of answer, contact forecastprecision level, quality of services rendered, average handling cost ofa contact, agent occupancy ratio, schedule adherence and conformity, andtime distribution (in service, non-service detailed time or“shrinkage”). Other examples include number of times calls are put onhold, number of transfers, $/min, $/call, number of upsells, number ofcross-sells, etc.

As can be appreciated, the state monitor 124 and/or bitmaps/tables 128may be internal to the work assignment mechanism 116 or they may beseparate from the work assignment mechanism 116. Likewise, certaincomponents of the work assignment engine 120 (e.g., deferment rules 136and/or the risk analysis module 140) do not necessarily need to beexecuted within the work assignment engine 120 and may be executed indifferent parts of the contact center 100.

FIG. 2 depicts exemplary data structures 200 which may be incorporatedin or used to generate the bitmaps/tables 128 used by the workassignment engine 120. One or more of these data structures may also beanalyzed by the risk analysis module 140 (e.g., via inputs received fromthe state monitor 124). The exemplary data structures 200 include one ormore pools of related items. In some embodiments, three pools of itemsare provided, including an enterprise work pool 204, an enterpriseresource pool 212, and an enterprise qualifier set pool 220. The poolsare generally an unordered collection of like items existing within thecontact center. Thus, the enterprise work pool 204 comprises a dataentry or data instance for each work item within the contact center 100at any given time.

In some embodiments, the population of the work pool 204 may be limitedto work items waiting for service by or assignment to a resource 112,but such a limitation does not necessarily need to be imposed. Rather,the work pool 204 may contain data instances for all work items in thecontact center regardless of whether such work items are currentlyassigned and being serviced by a resource 112 or not. Thedifferentiation between whether a work item is being serviced (i.e., isassigned to a resource 112) may simply be accounted for by altering abit value in that work item's data instance. Alteration of such a bitvalue may result in the work item being disqualified for furtherassignment to another resource 112 unless and until that particular bitvalue is changed back to a value representing the fact that the workitem is not assigned to a resource 112, thereby making that resource 112eligible to receive another work item.

Similar to the work pool 204, the resource pool 212 comprises a dataentry or data instance for each resource 112 within the contact center.Thus, resources 112 may be accounted for in the resource pool 212 evenif the resource 112 is ineligible due to its unavailability because itis assigned to a work item or because a human agent is not logged-in.The ineligibility of a resource 112 may be reflected in one or more bitvalues. As discussed in further detail herein, the eligibility of aresource 112 may differ from the availability of that resource 112 tohandle work as determined by the deferment rules 136, 140. Specifically,depending upon an agent's assigned tier according to one or moredeferment rules 136, 140, an agent may actually be available to handlework items, but may be ineligible to handle work items of a particulartype (e.g., skill requirement). The available but ineligible status ofan agent may allow the deferment rules 136 to actually defer work itemrouting decisions for a period of time, perhaps in the hope that abetter qualified agent will become available and eligible in themeantime. Similarly, the risk analysis module 140 may be configured tomonitor the attributes of some or every resource within the resourcepool 212 to determine the risks of waiting for a well-matched agent.

The resource pool 212 may, in some embodiments, comprise twonon-overlapping sub-pools of resources—a pool of well-matched but notavailable agents 228 and a pool of available but not well-matched agents232. In some embodiments, agents from the resource pool 212 may beassigned to either pool 228, pool 232, or neither pool 228 and pool 232.In other words, an agent will not be able to simultaneously be assignedto both pools 228, 232. The assignment of an agent to one of the pools228, 232 may be controlled and/or represented by changing a bit value inthe corresponding agent's attribute set. For example, a first bit fieldmay be used for indicating assignment (or lack thereof) to pool 228(e.g., ‘0’ indicates lack of assignment and ‘1’ indicates assignment)whereas a second bit field may be used for indicating assignment (orlack thereof) to pool 232.

The qualifier set pool 220 comprises a data entry or data instance foreach qualifier set within the contact center. In some embodiments, thequalifier sets within the contact center are determined based upon theattributes or attribute combinations of the work items in the work pool204. Qualifier sets generally represent a specific combination ofattributes for a work item. In particular, qualifier sets can representthe processing criteria for a work item and the specific combination ofthose criteria. Each qualifier set may have a corresponding qualifierset identified “qualifier set ID” which is used for mapping purposes. Asan example, one work item may have attributes of language=French andintent=Service and this combination of attributes may be assigned aqualifier set ID of “12” whereas an attribute combination oflanguage=English and intent=Sales has a qualifier set ID of “13.” Thequalifier set IDs and the corresponding attribute combinations for allqualifier sets in the contact center may be stored as data structures ordata instances in the qualifier set pool 220.

In some embodiments, one, some, or all of the pools may have acorresponding bitmap. Thus, a contact center may have at any instance oftime a work bitmap 208, a resource bitmap 216, and a qualifier setbitmap 224. In particular, these bitmaps may correspond to qualificationbitmaps which have one bit for each entry. Thus, each work item in thework pool 204 would have a corresponding bit in the work bitmap 208,each resource 112 in the resource pool 212 would have a correspondingbit in the resource bitmap 216, and each qualifier set in the qualifierset pool 220 may have a corresponding bit in the qualifier set bitmap224.

With reference now to FIG. 3, a data structure 300 that may be used byor included in either the deferment rules 136 or risk analysis module140 will be described in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The data structure 300 may comprise a number of data fieldsthat enable the deferment rules 136 and risk analysis module 140 to beinvoked to intelligently defer work item routing decisions based on thecurrent state of the contact center 100. In some embodiments, the fieldsin the data structure 300 include an agent information field 304, adeferment rule(s) field 308, a risk tolerance(s) field 312, a WAT field316, a wait time field 320, and an objective(s) field 324. Although thedata structure 300 is depicted as a single data structure, it should beappreciated that some of the fields depicted in FIG. 3 may be includedin one data structure whereas other fields may be included in adifferent data structure. As a non-limiting example, the data fieldsrelated to pools of agents (e.g., fields 304, 316) may be maintained ina first data structure whereas data fields related to work items (e.g.,fields 308, 312, 320, 324) may be maintained in a second data structure.The illustrative data structure 300 is shown as a single data structurefor convenience of discussion and should not be construed as limitingembodiments of the present disclosure to a single data structure 300.

As can be appreciated, one or more of the fields included in the datastructure 300 may be incorporated into one or both of the defermentrules 136 and risk analysis module 140, as appropriate.

The agent information field 304 may comprise information specific to anagent or group of agents (e.g., one or both pools 228, 232). Whenspecific to an agent, the agent information field 304 may comprise agentidentification information, whether the agent is a well-matched agent ornot for a particular work item, what types of work items the agent iswell-matched for, agent-specific KPIs, agent skills/attributes, agentlocation, whether the agent belongs to either pool 228 or 232, whetherthe agent is current available, etc. When specific to a group of agents,the agent information field 304 may comprise information describing thenumber of agents in the group (e.g., the current number of agents inpool 228 or pool 232), how the group size and/or quality is changingover time (e.g., whether the number of the agents in pool 228 or pool232 is increasing, decreasing, or staying constant, the rate at whichthe size of the pool 228, 232 is changing, the average skill level(s) ofagents within the group, the estimated processing time for agents tohandle a work item of a certain type, etc.), the estimated number ofagents in the group at a particular time in the future (e.g., anestimation of when no agents will be available in pool 232, anestimation of when an agent will leave pool 228 and become available tohandle a work item, etc.), and combinations thereof. The agentinformation field 304 can be used to store a variety of agent or groupinformation.

The deferment rule(s) field 308 may store various types of informationregarding whether and for how long a work assignment decision should bedeferred. More specifically, the deferment rule(s) field 308 may containone or more thresholds that define when a work assignment decisionshould be deferred. The deferment rule(s) field 308 may also containinformation that defines the maximum amount of time that a workassignment decision should be deferred. Any other information describedherein that relates to determining whether and to what extent a workassignment should be deferred may be maintained within the defermentrule(s) field 308.

The risk tolerance(s) field 312 may comprise information that can beused by the risk analysis module 140 to determine whether the risksassociated with deferring a work assignment decision outweigh thebenefits associated therewith. More specifically, information in therisk tolerance(s) field 312 may describe situations or rules under whicha work assignment decision should not longer be deferred. Even if thedeferment rule(s) 308 define that the work assignment decision should bedeferred, the information contained within the risk tolerance(s) 312 maysupersede the deferment rule(s) 308. In some embodiments, theinformation in the risk tolerance(s) field 312 may be created by anadministrator of the contact center. It may be possible, however, toalso allow a customer or initiator of a contact to further refine therisk tolerance(s) field 312. Specifically, a customer may be askedwhether they are willing to wait for a well-matched agent even though anon-well-matched agent is currently available. If the customer indicatesa willingness to wait, the customer may also be asked how long they arewilling to wait. This information may be provided as feedback to adjustthe risk tolerance(s) 312 for that specific customer with respect totheir current contact and possibly with respect to future contacts.

The WAT field 316 may comprise information for calculating the WAT of aparticular work item, the WAT of a set of work items, etc. In someembodiments, the WAT is the measure of the average time that is requiredfor a work item to advance one position. In a contact center employingtraditional queues, such as skill-based queues, the WAT may correspondto the average time required for the work item to advance one positionwithin a queue. In a queueless contact center, the WAT may correspond tothe average amount of time for a similar type of work item to beprocessed by a resource 112. Accordingly, the WAT may be calculated as acontinuously updated average advance time. As can be appreciated by oneof ordinary skill in the art, the time period over which advance timesare averaged for a queue or type of work item can be varied. The WAT, insome embodiments, provides a measure of risk associated with delaying awork assignment decision. In some embodiments, a WAT threshold may becontained in the risk tolerance(s) field 312. If the WAT calculated fora particular work item becomes too large (e.g., larger than the WATthreshold), then delaying the work assignment decision has become toorisky and deferment of the decision may be discontinued.

The wait time field 320 may comprise wait time information for aspecific work item, a specific group of work items (e.g., work items ofa common type), actual wait time, estimated wait time, or combinationsthereof. The wait time field 320 may also comprise information thatdescribes how long agents have been waiting in the pool of available butnot well-matched agents 232. This information can also be integratedinto the deferment rule(s) 308 and/or risk tolerance(s) 312.

Likewise, the objective(s) field 324 may comprise information describingone or more objectives within a contact center. The objectives may bespecific to a particular KPI (e.g., a maximum threshold for actual orestimated wait time, a maximum target for profit/contact, a goal foragent occupancy, any other known type of Service Level Objective (SLO),or combinations thereof). In some embodiments, the WAT, wait time, andan objective for wait time (target wait time) can be used to determine anumber of opportunities a customer will have to be served before thereis a failure to meet the objective. An equation of (objective—waittime)/WAT can result in the calculation of the opportunities and acorresponding opportunity threshold can be stored in the risktolerance(s) field 312. The risk analysis module 140 may be configuredto analyze the calculated opportunity number and compare it with theopportunity threshold stored in the risk tolerance(s) field 312. If thecalculated value is less than the opportunity threshold, then the riskanalysis module 140 may stop the work assignment engine 120 fromcontinuing to defer a work assignment decision and a corresponding workitem may be assigned to an agent from the pool of available but notwell-matched agents 232.

With reference now to FIG. 4, additional details related to theoperation and use of the deferment rules 136 and risk analysis module140 will be described in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

The method begins when a contact is received at the contact center 100(step 408). A contact may be received in any form such as a real-time,non-real-time, and near-real-time contact. Examples of contacts that maybe received include inbound calls, outbound calls, emails, SMS messages,faxes, IM chat requests, combinations thereof, etc. Upon receiving thecontact, one or more attributes or properties of the contact may bedetermined and a work item may then be created within the workassignment mechanism 116 to represent the received contact (step 408).The attributes of the work item may be obtained using any knownmechanisms such as obtaining information from a customer database,analyzing caller identification information, receiving information froman IVR interaction with the customer, etc.

The work assignment engine 120 may inherently be aware of the attributesof resources 112 within the contact center 110 vis-à-vis access toinformation about the resource pool 212 and resource bitmap 216. Thework assignment engine 120 may also determine the processingrequirements of the work item based on its attributes. The workassignment engine 120 may comprise logic configured to compare theattributes of the work item with the attributes of all resources 112 inthe contact center 100 to determine if a well-matched agent is currentlyavailable to process the work item (step 412). As can be appreciated, a“well-matched” agent may correspond to an agent that has a perceivedvalue related to processing the work item that is greater than aperceived value of another agent processing the same work item. As anon-limiting example, a first agent may be considered well-matched ascompared to a second agent if the first agent is predicted to process awork item in 10 minutes whereas the second agent is predicted to processthe work item in 12 minutes. This prediction may be based on historicalKPIs measured for the two agents, the assigned skill level of the twoagents, history of each agent with the customer associated with the workitem, etc. In some embodiments, it may be possible to consider a thirdagent well-matched as compared to the first and second agents if thethird agent has a greater perceived value with respect to processing thesame work item as compared to the first and second agents. Althoughestimated processing time is one way to determine a perceived value and,therefore, determine whether an agent is “well-matched” other metricscould be used to determine well-matched agents. For example, if an agenthas previously worked with a particular customer and that particularcustomer has initiated a new contact, the agent that previously workedwith the customer may be considered “well-matched” as compared to allother agents because of the perceived value associated with a commonpoint of contact between the customer and the company. Other examplemetrics that can be used include estimated profit/call, historicalprofit/call, estimated customer satisfaction, historical customersatisfaction, combinations thereof, or any other historical or estimatedKPI value.

If the work assignment engine 120 determines that a well-matched agentis current available, then the work assignment engine 120 can simplyassign the work item to that well-matched agent (step 416) and instructthe routing engine 132 to connect the selected agent with the contact(step 420).

If, however, a well-matched agent is not currently available, then thework assignment engine 120 may determine the construction of the pool ofavailable but not well-matched agents 232 (step 424). In this step, thework assignment engine 120 may also analyze the construction of the poolof well-matched but not available agents 228. In some embodiments, thework assignment engine 120 may analyze whether any agents are currentlyin the pool 232, how long it is estimated that one, some, or all agentswill remain in the pool 232, whether any agents are currently in pool228, how long it is estimated that an agent will migrate out of the pool228 and become available, the costs/benefits associated with allowing anagent from pool 232 to process the work item now versus allowing anagent from pool 228 to process the work item later, combinationsthereof, etc.

Based on the determinations made in step 424, the work assignment engine120 may then invoke the risk analysis module 140 to compare the risks ofwaiting for an agent from pool 228 to become available versus thebenefits (step 428) to determine whether the work assignment decisionshould continue to be deferred (step 432). Specifically, the riskanalysis module 140 may determine whether the agents in the pool 232 aredecreasing at a rate that could eliminate the option of assigning thework item to an agent in pool 232 before any other agent becomesavailable. The risk analysis module 140 may also analyze the agents inpool 228 to determine if any agent is estimated to become availablebefore the agents from pool 232 are assigned to other work items. As canbe appreciated, there are a number of possible ways in which the riskanalysis module 140 may weigh the risks associated with waiting for awell-matched agent against the benefits associated with waiting.

In some embodiments, the risk analysis module 140 may consider WAT aspart of the risk analysis. If the WAT is larger than a predeterminedthreshold, then the risk analysis module 140 may determine that therisks of waiting are too great and the deferment of the work assignmentdecision may be discontinued. Another way to use WAT to analyze therisks associated with waiting would be to compute the estimated numberof assignment opportunities that exist for the work item as(objective—wait time)/WAT. This calculated number may be compared to anopportunity threshold to determine whether to allow deferment tocontinue. The risk analysis module 140 may also be configured to predictwait time for a well-matched agent and if that predicted wait time isless than a predicted time at which all agents from pool 232 areconsumed, then the deferment may be discontinued.

If the query of step 432 is answered affirmatively (e.g., the risksassociated with waiting for a well-matched agent are still withinacceptable tolerances), then the method returns to step 412. If thequery of step 432 is answered negatively (e.g., the risks associatedwith waiting for a well-matched agent are no longer within acceptabletolerances), then the method continues with the work assignment engine120 assigning the work item to an agent from the pool of available butnot well-matched agents 232 (step 436). The method then proceeds to step420 to execute the results of the assignment decision.

It should be appreciated that the data obtained from determining whenrisks were to high to defer a work assignment decision can be useful ina closed loop feedback system. Specifically, the behavior of the systemmay be analyzed over time to determine how often and under whatcircumstances the risks of waiting for a well-matched agent wereconsidered too high (e.g., due to predetermined thresholds). Thisinformation can be used to define other changes within the contactcenter. For instance, the risk thresholds may be altered if it isobserved that certain SLOs are not being met. As another example, ratherthan adjusting the predetermined risk threshold, other changes in thecontact center can be implemented to meet one or more SLOs such as, forexample, adding agents to a particular shift, hiring more agents,changing agent schedules, etc. Thus, the analysis of risk tolerances anddecisions to defer work assignment decisions can be used to influenceother aspects of contact center behavior.

It should be appreciated that while embodiments of the presentdisclosure have been described in connection with a queueless contactcenter architecture, embodiments of the present disclosure are not solimited. In particular, those skilled in the contact center arts willappreciate that some or all of the concepts described herein may beutilized in a queue-based contact center or any other traditionalcontact center architecture.

Furthermore, in the foregoing description, for the purposes ofillustration, methods were described in a particular order. It should beappreciated that in alternate embodiments, the methods may be performedin a different order than that described. It should also be appreciatedthat the methods described above may be performed by hardware componentsor may be embodied in sequences of machine-executable instructions,which may be used to cause a machine, such as a general-purpose orspecial-purpose processor (GPU or CPU) or logic circuits programmed withthe instructions to perform the methods (FPGA). These machine-executableinstructions may be stored on one or more machine readable mediums, suchas CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs,EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other typesof machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronicinstructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by acombination of hardware and software.

Specific details were given in the description to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practicedwithout these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown inblock diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessarydetail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms,structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail inorder to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

Also, it is noted that the embodiments were described as a process whichis depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, astructure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describethe operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can beperformed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of theoperations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when itsoperations are completed, but could have additional steps not includedin the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, aprocedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process correspondsto a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the functionto the calling function or the main function.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software,firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or anycombination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middlewareor microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessarytasks may be stored in a machine readable medium such as storage medium.A processor(s) may perform the necessary tasks. A code segment mayrepresent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, asubroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any combination ofinstructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment maybe coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passingand/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memorycontents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed,forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memorysharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

While illustrative embodiments of the disclosure have been described indetail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may beotherwise variously embodied and employed, and that the appended claimsare intended to be construed to include such variations, except aslimited by the prior art.

1. A method, comprising: receiving a first contact in a contact center;creating a first work item as a representation of the first contact inthe contact center; establishing a pool of agents within the contactcenter, each agent in the pool of agents being qualified to process thefirst work item, wherein the pool of agents being qualified to processthe first work item comprises: at least one well-matched agent and atleast one less-well-matched agent, wherein the at least oneless-well-matched agent is not as well-matched for the first work itembecause they are not as qualified to process the first work item as atleast one other well-matched agent in the contact center, and whereinthe at least one other well-matched agent is not available at the firsttime; and deferring a work assignment decision for the first work itembeyond the first time while simultaneously considering a risk of notassigning the first work item to an agent in the pool of agents.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein considering the risk of not assigning thefirst work item to an agent in the pool of agents comprises determininga Weighted Advance Time (WAT) for at least one of the first work item, awork item having a common attribute with the first work item, andmultiple work items having common attributes with the first work item.3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: determining a current waittime for the first work item; determining a target wait time for thefirst work item; and based on the determined WAT, the determined currentwait time, and the determined target wait time, determining whether ornot to continue deferring the work assignment decision.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the determination of whether or not to continuedeferring the work assignment decision comprises calculating anestimated number of assignment opportunities according to the following:(the determined target wait time—the determined current wait time)/thedetermined WAT.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising comparingthe estimated number of assignment opportunities with a threshold. 6.The method of claim 2, further comprising: comparing the determined WATwith a predetermined threshold; and if the determined WAT is larger thanthe predetermined threshold, discontinuing deferment of the workassignment decision.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:estimating an amount of time until the at least one other well-matchedagent becomes available; and using the estimated amount of time toconsider the risk of not assigning the first work item to an agent inthe pool of agents.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the risk of notassigning the first work item to an agent in the pool of agents includesa risk tolerance of a customer that initiated the first contact.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, wherein the risk tolerance of the customer isdetermined by at least one of (i) analyzing historical contactinformation for the customer and (ii) asking the customer about theirrisk tolerance.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first contact isa real-time contact.
 11. A non-transitory computer readable mediumhaving stored thereon instructions that cause a computing system toexecute a method, the instructions comprising: instructions configuredto create a first work item as a representation of a first contactreceived in a contact center at a first time; instructions configured toanalyze a pool of agents within the contact center, each agent in thepool of agents being qualified to process the first work item, whereinthe pool of agents being qualified to process the first work itemcomprises: at least one well-matched agent and at least oneless-well-matched agent, wherein the at least one less-well-matchedagent is not as well-matched for the first work item because they arenot as qualified to process the first work item as at least one otherwell-matched agent in the contact center, wherein the at least one otherwell-matched agent is not available at the first time; and instructionsconfigured to defer a work assignment decision for the first work itembeyond the first time while simultaneously considering a risk of notassigning the first work item to an agent in the pool of agents.
 12. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 11, wherein considering the risk ofnot assigning the first work item to an agent in the pool of agentscomprises determining a Weighted Advance Time (WAT) for at least one ofthe first work item, a work item having a common attribute with thefirst work item, and multiple work items having common attributes withthe first work item.
 13. The computer readable medium of claim 12,further comprising: instructions configured to determine a current waittime for the first work item; instructions configured to determine atarget wait time for the first work item; and instructions configuredto, based on the determined WAT, the determined current wait time, andthe determined target wait time, determine whether or not to continuedeferring the work assignment decision.
 14. The computer readable mediumof claim 13, wherein the determination of whether or not to continuedeferring the work assignment decision comprises calculating anestimated number of assignment opportunities according to the following:(the determined target wait time—the determined current wait time)/thedetermined WAT.
 15. The computer readable medium of claim 11, whereinthe risk of not assigning the first work item to an agent in the pool ofagents includes a risk tolerance of a customer that initiated the firstcontact.
 16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the risktolerance of the customer is determined by at least one of (i) analyzinghistorical contact information for the customer and (ii) asking thecustomer about their risk tolerance.
 17. The computer readable medium ofclaim 11, wherein the first contact is a real-time contact.
 18. Acontact center, comprising: a work assignment mechanism including: awork assignment engine configured to create a first work item as arepresentation of a first contact received in a contact center at afirst time, analyze a pool of agents within the contact center, eachagent in the pool of agents being qualified to process the first workitem, wherein the pool of agents being qualified to process the firstwork item comprises: at least one well-matched agent and at least oneless-well-matched agent, wherein the at least one less-well-matchedagent is not as well-matched for the first work item because they arenot as qualified to process the first work item as at least one otherwell-matched agent in the contact center, wherein the at least one otherwell-matched agent is not available at the first time, the workassignment engine comprising: deferment rules configured to defer a workassignment decision for the first work item beyond the first time; and arisk analysis module configured to simultaneously consider a risk of notassigning the first work item to an agent in the pool of agents.
 19. Thecontact center of claim 18, wherein the risk analysis module is furtherconfigured to estimate an amount of time until the at least one otherwell-matched agent becomes available.
 20. The contact center of claim18, further comprising a state monitor configured to determine a currentstate of the contact center and provide information regarding thecurrent state of the contact center to the risk analysis module.